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Verstappen: Radio makes me sound arrogant

Max Verstappen says the team radio messages broadcast on television make him sound arrogant after his comments to Red Bull in the United States Grand Prix.

When told to look after his tyres when attacking Nico Rosberg to ensure he could complete the required stint length, Verstappen replied: "I'm not here to finish fourth".

Asked if the comment was relating to the fact he can't push on the current generation of Pirelli tyres, Verstappen replied: "I think I am going to take my radio button off!

"No radio for me anymore…! As a driver I always want to go forward, I want to win, so I was trying to get past. I did it with Kimi [Raikkonen] as well because that was like I arrived and got past, but with Nico it didn’t really work out. At the end of the day, I did damage my left front a bit but it was not that bad.

"The thing is, all the time I press my radio button it is broadcast and sometimes it sounds a bit arrogant – especially the ‘I’m not here to finish fourth’ – and that is just what comes up in my mind.

"I am not there to finish fourth at the end of the day, I am there to win as a racer but on the radio it sounds I am arrogant and not listening to the team, but it is not like that."

Verstappen also explained how his poor pit stop came about in Austin, with the Dutch driver having pitted when his team hadn't called him in.

"You always have a bit of code messages and we spoke about some things. The main thing was I think after driving an hour in the car, you get into a comfort zone, an auto-pilot, so I saw Daniel box the lap before so I thought because we were so close together I would box the next lap. I think that is where it went wrong. I was thinking a bit too much for myself."

Following the race in Austin, Helmut Marko said Verstappen needs to find a better balance between attacking and being patient, but the 19-year-old shrugged off the comments.

"To be honest, I don’t know. Things have been going pretty well. You always learn, but as a driver this season I think I have been pretty consistent."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.